VIP 1200 (3 of 'em) gone into perpetual reboot

[ Edited ]

I expected to see this posted by someone else, if it was the result of an update pushed out to the receivers. Hmmm. Here's what happened. I have the 3800HGV-B gateway, 3 VIP 1200's and a VIP1216 DVR. Last night, while watching a DVR recording from one of the VIP1200's, the sound went off. After checking the TV, connections, Mute button, etc. I restarted the VIP1200. This is where the fun began.

After the usual ten minute boot, instead of the regular U-Verse screen, I got Press OK for U-verse on demand. What? A few seconds later, the device rebooted. Checked other TVs, including the one connected to the DVR and all were OK. So I figured the box went bad and swapped with another VIP1200, which--guess what--did the same thing. OK, time for a total system restart.

Everything powered off (power disconnected). First RG powered on. Time for startup. Then DVR powered on. Time for startup. Then the 3 VIP 1200's. Wait. Wait. Wait. Now the DVR and the TV connected to it are OK. ALL THREE VIP 1200's are in perpetual reboot.

Internet is OK. Internet speed very good. My three Roku boxes are working. Computers, tablet, and iPhones all have Internet. And the DVR receiver is working just fine. VIP 1200's have spent the night rebooting and are still doing the same. Called to ATT tech support, line checks out OK, the RG rebooted remotely came back up normally. They're dispatching a tech, but this is too weird. No way 3 boxes all crashed at the same time, right? I have no indication of power surges or momentary power outages.

And this happened in the middle of playing the Walking Dead episode from last Sunday.

Re: VIP 1200 (3 of 'em) gone into perpetual reboot

There were posts around Christmas, a defective DVR not allowing receivers to boot, recommend repeating your steps but FR RG (depress reset button for at least 10 seconds), once up boot receivers first, if all comes up then DVR....if they drop after DVR booted then DVR software corrupt ( either reset DVR, or replace

Reason for factory resetting RG is to rebuild device list.

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Re: VIP 1200 (3 of 'em) gone into perpetual reboot

Thanks, mythoughts. You were exactly right. I disconnected power from the VIP1216 DVR. Powered on 2 of the 3 VIP1200's, and they came up correctly and worked fine.

Powered on the DVR and waited for it to come up completely. The TV connected to it worked fine, even playing back recordings. Powered on the 3rd VIP1200, and it resumed the neverending boot mode. I reset the DVR. Gave it time to come back up and play on the connected TV.

Looked at the other two VIP1200's, and they were still playing. On one, I pressed the Recorded TV button, and it showed "no recordings available", and then after a few seconds, it rebooted. The other "working" VIP1200 continued to work for a minute, then the picture froze, and the box rebooted. Now all three VIP1200's are back in perpectual reboot.

The VIP1216 DVR is working on the connected TV. If I power it off and restart the three VIP1200's they work. It sounds like the DVR needs to be replaced. Hopefully, the tech scheduled for later today carries spare receivers in his truck.

Re: VIP 1200 (3 of 'em) gone into perpetual reboot

Oops. Sorry for the delay. The tech knew instantly what the problem was and brought a new DVR in from the truck. Problem solved. Since it is a much newer model than my old DVR, it has a larger hard drive and so more recording time. A bonus.